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Diversity challenges in the classroom
The importance of an inclusive teaching environment
Diversity challenges in the classroom
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Imagine. You are a student once again and you are struggling to feel like you fit in. Everyone in your class seems to be smarter, faster, and better than you. You feel like you do not belong and are a loser. Now switch gears. You are the teacher and you see that one student struggling with those emotions; ask yourself, how can you help? As an educator, you can help a student feel included by accommodating their needs and making sure they know they are important, asking them their views on class issues, and by not underestimating their abilities as a growing, working brain.
In Mara Sapon-Shevin’s short story, Widening the Circle, she uses the dinner party scenario on how she can use inclusion and make sure each person is accommodated for. This piece is an exact replica of what one would want to use in their classroom. For example, Shevin recalls that she gave her shy, quiet friends, a job to do to make them more engaged in the party and not feel left out.
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This means that children with all different types of a disability are accessible to public education and learning through professional educators and through their peers. Another important legislation that has been established in 1975 is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that includes all ages of children and their rights to learn. Both of these movements helped shape what special education is today and assisted in bringing inclusion into the classroom. They both made it possible for students with disabilities to be integrated into general education classrooms, while getting the assistance they need as well. These acts are what made it possible into what my field of study is and I intend to push the boundaries of getting my future students in these general education classrooms and making them feel apart of something
The essay begins with Griffin across the room from a woman called Laura. Griffin recalls the lady taking on an identity from long ago: “As she speaks the space between us grows larger. She has entered her past. She is speaking of her childhood.” (Griffin 233) Griffin then begins to document memories told from the lady about her family, and specifically her father. Her father was a German soldier from around the same time as Himmler. Griffin carefully weaves the story of Laura with her own comments and metaphors from her unique writing style.
In her article, “Lecture Me. Really”, Molly Worthen addresses the issue college students know all too well: how to lecture properly. Published in the New York Times, Worthen writes a passionate article about lecturing but from the perspective of a professor. Worthen presents the idea that lecturing, although some may think ineffective in the classroom, is a way to truly challenge and engage students into critically thinking. Worth dictates this idea with an excellent build up logical argument but lacks the proper evidence to support her claims creating a faulty argument.
In her article “Why Racial Integration Remains an Imperative,” Elizabeth Anderson claims that integration is the only solution to the problems created by segregation, particularly between blacks and whites. Referencing her book The Imperative of Integration, she provides evidence to show why other methods are ineffective in eliminating racial disparities. In his “Comment on Elizabeth Anderson’s The Imperative of Integration,” Ronald Sundstrom critiques this view by suggesting an alternative method to combat segregation. He proposes that local solidarity will eventually lead to the type of inclusion envisioned by Anderson. However, Anderson provides ample support within her article to refute this critique and show the necessity of integration.
The child with a learning disability is entitled under IDEA to receive the same quality of education and other services which are entitled to students without disabilities. The law states that the facilities for both kinds of students must be comparable and the necessary training materials and the appropriate equipment to impart the education must be provided to the student (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), n.d.).
In her book Around the World in 30 Years Barbara Gallatin Anderson presents a convincing and precise representation to the many aspects that go into the being a cultural anthropologist. Her visually impacting story follows her around the world throughout her personal career. The attention to detail and thorough explanations make the reader feel as though they too are an anthropologist.
In “Where the World Began” by Margaret Laurence, the author describes her hometown, a small prairie in Canada called Neepawa. She paints a vivid picture of Neepawa; its nature, its buildings, its inhabitants, both alive and dead. For Laurence, her hometown is not “uninteresting”, or “dull”, as the stereotype about small towns goes. In fact, even after having explored many different locations such as England and Africa, this little town is the place she is most drawn to. She provides the reason for this strong attraction herself: "Because that settlement and that land were my first and for many years my only real knowledge of this planet, in some profound way they remain my world, my way of viewing. My eyes were formed there". Laurence draws a strong bond between home and personality throughout the essay, giving immense importance to the influence of her childhood home on her adult outlook. She concludes by telling the reader: "This is where my world began … A world which formed me, and continues to do so, even while I fought it in some of its aspects, and continue to do so. A world which gave me my own lifework to do, because it was here that I learned the
The Capability Approach is defined by its choice of focus upon the moral significance of individuals’ capability of achieving the kind of lives they have reason to value. This distinguishes it from more established approaches to ethical evaluation, such as utilitarianism or resourcism, which focus exclusively on subjective well-being or the availability of means to the good life, respectively. A person’s capability to live a good life is defined in terms of the set of valuable ‘beings and doings’ like being in good health or having loving relationships with others to which they have real access.
“Eighteenth-Century American Women in Peace and War: The Case of the Loyalists” is an innovative essay written by acclaimed professor and historian Mary Beth Norton. Throughout her work, Norton effectively weaves an intriguing and extensive portrait of the late eighteenth-century American female loyalist and the rigid domestic sphere she was bound to. Norton argues that numerous loyalist women lacked the financial and economic knowledge necessary to receive adequate reparations from the British government both during and after the American Revolution. Norton further asserts that these domesticated women predominantly viewed themselves as powerless females who possessed far less control over their own lives as opposed to their superior male
One such policy is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, or IDEA; IDEA sets guidelines and standards for educational services. The services included under IDEA are eligibility tests, appropriate education, individual education plans (IEP), and least restrictive environments (LRE). IEPs are specialized and unique plans that cater to the child's individual needs. Meanwhile, LRE refers to the standard that the learning environment for disabled children is of equal quality and as similar to the classrooms of neurotypical individuals as possible (Santrock, 2017, pg.282). In addition, IDEA also enrolls children into early-intervention programs which helps students transition into appropriate programs. Furthermore, it also ensures that all special education teachers are qualified, and that students with disabilities are not disproportionately suspended or expelled from school in comparison to their neurotypical peers (The History of Special Education,
The Individuals with Disabilities Act, 2004 (IDEA), has 14 different categories of disabilities (IDEA Partnership, 2012). Students with disabilities can be placed into two more distinct groups which are high incidence disabilities or HID and low incidence disabilities or LID. IDEA defines low incidence disabilities as those students with visual, hearing or significant cognitive impairment (Outcome Data, 2006). These students need personal that are highly trained in specialized skill and knowledge to provide early interventions and education. Those with LID account for less than one percent of the school population (Outcome Data, 2006). Students that fall into this category are usually educated outside of the general education classroom for part of the school day.
“Dad asked me if I wanted to see more of the Compound. I didn’t. We would have to wait fifteen years before it would be safe to go outside. Which left more than enough time to see the rest of the Compound. Our new world. A world I would soon hate” (Bodeen 8). The Compound by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, shows that the Compound is a veritable of hell through her use of repetition, and point of view. The Fallout, also written by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, through the point of view of Eli, shows the struggles of readjusting to normal everyday life that we take advantage of. Both works show the importance and symbolism, the titles have towards the development of the story.
Prior to 1975, educational options for a child living with a mental or physical disability were limited. The family of the handicapped child was most likely forced down an path that lead to the institutionalization of the child and distancing the child from the benefits of receiving a free and public education. It was after federal legislation passed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. § 1983) that monumental changes began to develop that allowed a better understanding of the needs and capabilities of people with various handicapping conditions. Soon after this legislation, Public Law 94-142, also known as the Education for all Handicapped Children’s Act of 1975 (EHA) would further increase the public awareness by providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for children suffering from disabilities. Following the EHA legislation reformations concerning the education of disabled individuals would soon become numerous and legislative acts were passed enabling accommodations for disabled individuals in the fields of vocations and technology. In 1990, President Gerald Ford signed legislation replacing P.L. 94-142 with the Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA, 20 USC 1400). By definition, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation (US Department of Education, 2011).
Public Law 94-142: The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, now called Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), requires states to provide free, appropriate public education (FAPE) for every child regardless of disability. This federal law was the first to clearly define the rights of disabled children to receive special education services if their disability affects their educational performance. A parent of a special education student also has basic rights under IDEA including the right to have their child evaluated by the school district and to be included when the school district meets about the child or makes decisions about his or her education. If a child is identified as in need of special education services, the school district must devise a written individual education program (IEP) for the child, which includes related services. An IEP is a statement of a student’s special education and related services including speech services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, counseling and assistive technology and transportation. In addition, this legally binding, individualized plan outlines reasonable educational goals for the student and is reviewed and updated yearly.
“The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or gender, but people with disabilities were not included under such protection” (Department of Justice). It was not until 1973 when the Rehabilitation Act came to fruition that people were officially by law protected against discrimination on the basis of either mental or physical disability. The Architectural Barriers Act implemented in 1968 helped people with disabilities have access to buildings and facilities by companies, agencies complying with federal standards for physical accessibility. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). This Act allows people with disabilities into public schools and also requires the school to develop (IEP’s) Individualized Education Programs to be developed and fit individualized needs for the student. Another very important piece of legislation is the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation and telecommunications services” (A Brief History, p.1).
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. “Thirty-five Years of Progress in Educating Children With Disabilities Through IDEA”. Washington, D.C., 2010.